Happy Birthday, Bre!!!

Sometimes you meet someone who you just KNOW was meant to be in your life. It's almost as though you've known each other forever...like your souls were friends in heaven and finally found each other on earth. That person understands you better than anyone you've ever met and accepts you for all of your faults and loves you anyway.

I was so blessed to meet Bre over 2 years ago. I'm glad our souls found each other.

Happy Birthday, Bre! I LOVE YOU!!!

We ALL love you! :)

Elmo!!!

I'm not sure which of us saw the advertisement first, but Tim and I agreed that Elmo Live! would be a great time for both of the kids. We convinced our friends Bre and Jake to go with us, as well as their son Andrew, and we talked it up for weeks! Brenden asked several times if Elmo was in town yet and Lauren watched many episodes of Elmo's World so she could sing along. Finally, the day arrived!

After a yummy, early dinner (which we almost ruined by going to the wrong location. Sorry Bre and Jake!) we headed over to the BOK Center. While waiting outside Brenden made a new friend and was amazed to find out that he has a prosthetic leg. The little boy had no problem showing it to us and his family was so nice about it. We had a very long talk with him after about what was appropriate to ask. Hopefully a little of it stuck.

Eventually we made it inside and made a beeline for the the play area outside the show. Not long after, music started playing and Murray came out to perform. I thought the kids would have a blast dancing around and sing along. Boy was I wrong! Brenden immediately hid behind me and eventually pulled me away repeating, "I don't like those guys!" Even after I explained it was just a fun costume, he was not having it. Lauren wasn't quite as scared, but she made Tim hold her the entire time she watched and didn't smile once.

Hello, big fluffy red guy that is WAY bigger than I expected!

Abby, and her fun button, were a hit, though!

I was not looking forward to the actual show, especially after they finally showed interest in something but that something was just a frozen strawberry lemonade.

Can you feel the excitement?

Eventually it was time to head to our seats. The lights went down, the music started, and I don't think Brenden blinked even once until the intermission. He did lean over to me, with his eyes still firmly fixed on the stage to tell me that he "liked those guys now" and asked where Murray was hiding because he was ready to see him, now. Lauren actually stood up and bounced around, which is what she does when she watches Elmo at home, too. By the end of the show, they were hooked. Brenden beamed up at me and said, "That was AMAZING!" Lauren hugged Tim around the neck and squealed, "Elmo was AWESOME!"

So what was their favorite part of the show?

Brenden: "The kid with the cool leg! Can I have a cool leg like that???" (Sorry buddy, I think you'll thank me later for not letting you get a prosthetic leg. Although I think it's awesome that you thought he was cool!)

Lauren: "Purple!! Um...and PINK!" (Yep, exactly what I expected.)

Colorado So Far...

A not-long-enough visit with grandpa, a day spent with friends, lots of grandma hugs and kisses. We are spoiled. :)

 

All I Can Say is WOW!

Two days ago, I posted this on my Facebook wall:

I was being silly, of course. Then, I got a message from our friend, Ryan, who was in the Army with Tim while we were stationed in Colorado Springs. He mentioned that his dad painted and that I should friend him on Facebook and that he would paint it for me. To say I was ecstatic would be an understatement! Then, today, David tells me he is done. And I...I am blown away.

Original (taken with my phone):

David's painting:

Original (one of my favorites):

David's Painting:

Absolutely amazing! I may have shed a few tears, or a thousand, because I am so grateful and love them so much. Two wonderful guys, David and Ryan!

Why yes, he DOES have a website! http://www.davidpoyantpaintings.com/

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU David!!!!

So Thankful for Good Friends

When we started planning our trip out to Colorado for Thanksgiving one of the things we wanted to make sure we did was visit all of the friends we could. We were lucky enough to have time to spend an entire day with Heather and Tony on Sunday. Their son is only about 6 weeks older than Brenden and we were hoping that they would become fast friends. We were right!

I would recap our entire day but Heather already did that on her wonderful blogs and I am no where near as good of a writer as she is. Please click here and here to hear about our day. It was awesome.

She didn't take any pictures, but I definitely did. It was so fun to see the difference between the last time that we were able to see them and now. It gets harder and harder to leave Colorado every time we visit.

Thank you Heather and Tony for letting us invade your house, cooking us some yummy soup, and introducing me to Bacon, Bacon, Bacon pizza from Papa Murphy's. (It's fabulous!) We had the best day!

Adult Coversation

Tim really doesn't like it when I say things like, "I'm so glad that I got to hang out with people my age and have a real, adult conversation." He takes it as a personal insult, like I'm saying the conversations I have with him aren't "adult" or that he never talks to me. I guess I should be more specific...it's really nice to have a conversation that isn't usually focused on bills or what a certain toddler did all day. (Although, to be truthful, we end up talking about Brenden with other people, too. Oops!)

Last night was an "adult conversation" night. My friend Susan invited us to dinner with her husband, Craig. Tim was really happy that I had made plans, although I'm not sure if it's because I actually made the plans or that it proved that I have at least one friend here. :) We ended up meeting at Fox and the Hound and we had a great time.

I think we may have freaked Craig out a little bit. Susan is due with their first baby near the end of May and we somehow started talking about where Brenden slept when he was first born and how it worked out best for us to have him in our room or between us in the bed since he was up so often to eat. Tim was talking about how at first they just poop, eat and sleep, which I'm sure Craig knew, and then how eventually Brenden started getting into a routine, eating more and sleeping for longer stretches of time. Craig was interested in knowing when that happened. "Oh, around 5 weeks it got a little better, and at 8 weeks he started sleeping for 6 or 7 hours at night," Tim said. Craig's face...priceless. "It takes that long?" he asked, with a hint of panic. I hated to say it, but I told him sometimes babies can take a lot longer than that to get into a good sleep routine.

Most of our time was spent chatting about other, non-baby things, and laughing a ton. Brenden behaved even better than I thought possible, although I'm not sure if it was because of all the TVs around the room or the fact that he was sitting next to Susan, who he adores. Seriously, I'm not sure what she did the day that she watched him, but for the longest time he called the baby "Susan" and if I happen to mention her name he gets really excited and talks about her all day. It's hilarious!

He also learned a new phrase, which is my favorite right now. We asked him what he would like to eat off the kid's menu and as soon as pizza was mentioned he got excited. "Pizza! Pizza! MY pizza!" Every time the waitress walked by with a tray of food he would ask if that was "his pizza." So when she brought us our dinner and sat down a cheese burger in front of him we were both surprised. Apparently she heard "cheese burger" when I said "cheese pizza". Uh oh! If he hadn't had his heart set on pizza he may have been alright, but no luck. He wanted his pizza! So he picked up the plate, handed it back to the waitress, and said, "no thank you." He has only said that phrase once before, that I'm aware of, and I was super proud that he used it correctly and didn't throw a fit. I clapped and gave him a high five, which I've found to be the best way to get him to repeat good behavior or a new skill.

We really should go out with them more, especially since the amount of time we'll be able to socialize is going to really decrease soon. Plus, Susan and Craig are lots of fun, and it's kind of funny to watch Craig's face when he learns a new baby fact. It's like playing "Horrify the Twilight Noob" which, if you've never heard of Cleolinda Jones then you'll have no idea what I'm talking about. She makes fun of the Twilight books, and it's HILARIOUS. Plus, there's a baby in those books, too. Better not let Craig read that birth story. He might think that's how ALL babies are born. EEK! :)